LADY RUELLE MARY MASTERS has arrived in London with as little fanfare as possible. At 23, her FIRST SEASON has been a long time coming, and it seems she has managed to overcome her SHYNESS in her search for a future Viscount. Little is known about this RECLUSE, but you can be sure, dear readers, that I will learn the story behind that UNASSUMING face. Is a title truly all she can offer her future partner?

"A face for business and little else..."

ROLE

The Jane

FC

Rebecca Benson

FULL NAME

The Viscountess of Darring, Lady Ruelle Mary Masters

THE BASICS

- 23 years old

- Female

- Heterosexual

- Born on the Darring Estate in a smaller town just outside London

PERSONALITY & TRAITS

Ruelle is used to being judged before she opens her mouth, and her personality around others has come to reflect that. Quiet, withdrawn, and not prone to speaking unless spoken to, she can blend into the wallpaper if she so wishes- though it is not as unintentional as it may seem.

Many people believe she is shy, but that is not the case. Rue is quiet and observant because she doesn't care for attention, but also because behind her unassuming face is a clever mind, and she has a particular talent for reading people. Rue can be quite persuasive when she wants to be, but her self-consciousness and lack of confidence get in the way of her being truly charismatic. In those rare moments she feels utterly comfortable however, she can command a room.

Ruelle has a sweet soul, and is gentle and caring in small, often overlooked ways- her mother's favourite tea left by her bedside when she has a rough day, a row of freshly planted roses in the garden after a maid laments about missing the rose patch at her old home. Rue doesn't chase appreciation for her good deeds- seeing those she cares about happy and smiling is often enough to make her happy as well.

But her good heart is often hidden by her practicality and pessimism. Rue can see how the world operates, and not everyone looks out for others. She's critical and strategic when navigating herself through business ventures and insults cloaked in compliments, but seems naive for the way she chooses to pick her battles. That's okay with Rue, however- she's used to being underestimated.

Ruelle has been independent all her life, and has a hard time trusting others with important tasks- somewhat of a perfectionist, she has to do them all herself. She has a tendency to overwork herself, and will not give up on a goal once she sets her sights on it. Her quiet strength is often overlooked among flashier and more charming bachelors and bachelorettes of the season, and few get to know her enough to see it.

BIOGRAPHY

The unity of Lillian and Cornelius Masters was one of beauty and power, a couple that looked impressive from all sides. He was a Viscount with a sprawling estate, and she was the darling of the season- for all accounts, it was a union that all others had watched in both admiration and jealousy. There was only one issue- only one member of the happy couple was a severely devout Catholic, and the other had been pretending to become a Viscountess.

Cornelius found purpose and power in the church, it was the only truth he knew and trusted in an evil, sin-filled world. He was more married to the church than his wife, and during the few dinners he sat with his family, was distracted with either work or faith. He was not a family man, and took very little interest in Rue. Which left her fully under the attentions of her critical mother. Lillian had jumped a few ranks in status, and took it as her duty to ensure Rue could do the same, to secure a safe future. So Lillian put her in lessons early on, before little Rue could fully understand what was being said to her.

Childbirth sure hadn't felt like a miracle to Lillian. Perhaps she scorned God one too many times, because the daughter that had burst into life among her mother's colourful swears and screams was the only child Lillian was ever able to produce. Ruelle was the sole heir of the estate and the successful union between two beautiful, powerful people, and her life had drawn curious and critical eyes from those around her.

For all accounts, baby Ruelle was just as adorable as any other babe- rosy-cheeked and giggling with wide brown eyes. Lillian had doted on her daughter, determined to shape her into a beauty and success that surpassed even her. She believed that a Lady's life had two peaks- when she entered her season, and that when her daughters did. Nothing was more important, and Lillian was a determined soul.

Rue began lessons on the piano before she took her first steps, and her mother was unimpressed with her first words if they weren't sang. Her academics were costly and rigorous, but little Rue took to them like a fish to water, and all her tutors told her mother that she had an adept and clever mind.

At the same time, she was already being forced to accustom herself to pinching shoes and long dresses that made it difficult to run around and play, hair styled into perfect little ringlets every night, even if she wasn't going anywhere. "It's a good habit to get into, Ruelle" her mother would tell her when she frowned and complained how tight she was tying her ribbons. "Your future husband may just never know your curls aren't natural." Not that Rue actually understood what that meant.

By the time she was nine, Lillian realized that Rue had yet to inherent her plump lips or doe eyes. Her features were ordinary and plain, and though growing up a little more could perhaps fix that, Lillian had noticed the self-satisfied smirks of the other mothers she invited to tea time whenever they met her daughter, greeting them with a gap-toothed grin. The mama's teased each other about their other friend's daughter's being 'future heartbreakers' or Duchesses, but they never said a word to Lillian about Ruelle.

It made Lillian pay closer attention too- and she did not like what she saw. They started make-up early, and Lillian became harsher with her, snappy and frustrated that no matter what they did with her hair, or how much make-up they caked onto her, her features remained plain and unassuming. 

She had a face that even a mother couldn't seem to love. Nothing disfigured or boldly different, nothing grotesque enough to garner her pity or throw her from her golden perch in high society, but just plain. Uninteresting and forgettable.

Desperation was the only unflattering colour on Rue's mother, and over the years it wore away at her beauty. Gray hairs seemed to spring into existence as she looked over her daughter's plain face and grimaced, as she dove into the estate's coffers to buy grander dresses, dazzling jewelry and thicker makeup. But Rue only ever seemed to be buried by such beautiful garments, appearing only gaudy and overpainted in her caked makeup. As a young girl, Rue would kneel by her bed and pray to God every night, asking Him to make her pretty. Just a little bit, so her mom wouldn't be so sad or angry all the time.

She turned quiet and kept her head down over the years, having seen her mother grimace one too many times when looking at her face. "Do not take it personally, Rue." Her father had once said at the dining table after her mother left, muttering about the colour puce. "Vanity and Pride has always been your mother's mortal sins, and your plainness is only His attempt to set her on the right path. You are blessed, daughter, to never fall under your mother's same vices." He had smiled at her like she was a gift to spite his wife, and Rue was unable to finish the rest of her meal.

Society expects little from a woman- and even less from an ugly one. After a few unsuccessful years, it seemed her mother had finally accepted her plainness and Rue was free to roam as she pleased without a mother to worry about tripping and falling on her face-"anything would be an improvement" she recalled overhearing when Lillian entertained her friends- and spent more time around her father's office.

Though Cornelius was distracted and neglectful, and certainly loved God more than her, Rue appreciated his self-occupied muttering presence and that he never tried twisting her into something she wasn't. She would bring him lunch and look through his ledgers, occupying her mind by puzzling through the numbers. He would greet her with a "there's my sensible good girl" once he noticed she was there, and never usually spoke to her besides asking her to bring her things, but at that point in her life Rue had preferred her indifferent parent to her overbearing one.

Ruelle quickly found that she had a mind for business, and began suggesting investments to her father (he had grunted and shook his head, saying that business deals were "no place for a woman's flight of fancy, this isn't the same as betting on a pretty horse"), but fourteen year old Rue had no issue with penning in the investment in his handwriting when he was distracted. It ended up doubling in profit and resulted in Lillian buying her a lovely purple gown that Rue ended up wearing about twice.

She didn't spend her life growing up completely lonely, however- Ruelle had always been lovely to the servants working at the estate, even playing with the stable boys when she was younger, and found the girls she was supposed to be entertaining too mean as they parroted their mothers' words. She danced with the kitchen girls and cooks in the kitchens when her mother wasn't looking, and they would slip her pastries anytime she was put on a diet, showing Rue that she was loved even when she didn't feel like it.

Tragedy struck when Ruelle was seventeen, and it struck suddenly. Lillian had always been prone to illness, but blood began appearing in her handkerchief, and she deteriorated quickly from there. Rue kept a constant vigilance at her bedside, determined that so long as she was there the Reaper wouldn't dare approach. Her father waved rosaries and crosses in the face of the non-believer, praying for her health- and if that didn't work, her soul.

Cornelius had headed into town to pick up her medicine, but never returned. Lillian had bemoaned that he finally left them to go on a pilgrimage, that she always knew he never cared for her and that he must be waiting it out until she was dead, and Rue gently dabbed the sweat from her forehead as her mother colourfully cussed him out. It was a day later when a butler guided a young boy to Lillian's room, a messenger twisting his hat in his hands with a look of graveness that didn't befit such a young face. Viscount Cornelius Masters was dead, he said, struck by a flowerpot that fell three stories directly on his head, a freak accident that left him lifeless before he could even be rushed to a doctor.

She'll never forget the sound of her mother's hysterical blood-soaked laughter, a 'his God couldn't wait to meet his biggest fan, then' as her manic giggles turned to broken sobs. Lillian spent her last two weeks between death, begging her daughter to make her debut this season regardless, that as a soon-to-be orphan, she needed a husband now more than ever. Rue would lie and tell her that of course she had entered the season, stroked the worrying from between her mother's eyebrows as she read to her the 'letters' that a few bachelors had already written her. Lillian died not long after with a peaceful smile on her face, convinced that Rue was soon to be married.

She was lost and grief-stricken once the burials were over. Her cousins, the only family she still had left, comforted her and moved in to help her keep the estate running. It was only once the eldest of her cousins gently told her that all the stress would be taken off of her shoulders if she simply gave him the title of Viscount that it became clear to Rue why they truly came.

She kicked them out, five male cousins who thought they deserved the estate far more than some little girl, and Ruelle got to work. It was how she moved through her grief, becoming a ghost of her father as she spent all her days between the office and the church, praying for the souls of her mother and father. Telling them that she forgave them for not being great parents. It was only through the gentle coaxing of her staff that Rue slowly began to return to a healthier way of living- she never wanted to become the workaholic her father had been anyway.

It was understandable that her parent's passing delayed Ruelle's first season. But by the third year following their deaths, the general public were a lot less understanding. An aunt or something should have stepped in by now, prepping her for a husband- but Rue didn't trust the mothers of her ambitious cousins, and besides, enjoyed running her own estate far too much. She ran it well- if the books were to be believed, far better than her father, and even her grandfather.

Ruelle wanted to make bigger ventures, to capitalize on what she had and use it to bring real change around the community- one of her butlers would speak about how his cousin's child couldn't afford new books for school, and she grew the ambition to fund a library in their town- but no one would make deals with a woman. Her face was what they saw before her deals, and she was too plain for them to even indulge her before they waved her away.

So it was her cousin, Mr. Edward Masters, one too lazy to have tried taking the estate from her years ago, who went to make these deals for her. He was passionate and shrewd, a new face but too sharp to ever fall for an unbalanced deal- and those he came up with were new and inventive, hard things for even the most stubborn of businessmen to pass up. Only, the real Edward lived on the other side of the English Channel, growing rich and complacent with the cheques he was sent to keep out of the way and quiet about the whole thing. The Edward in Darring and London was actually Ruelle, who passed a little too easily as a boy once she was dressed as one, and who could be quite confident and compelling when she knew she wasn't being scrutinized and judged at every moment for how she looked.

It was dangerous yet thrilling, and though she loved the feeling of closing a deal, Rue knew it could not last. The longer she kept up the ruse the more likely she was to be found out about it- and only chaos and ruin would follow if society knew that she had infiltrated sacred men-only offices for business. It was why she was finally on the search for a husband- one who wouldn't try taking over everything she had built, who was talented enough to make deals on her behalf, who she could trust to do so. Rue wasn't very optimistic that such a man existed.

To be put out there like a prize cow among ladies far more beautiful than she was a terrifying prospect, and Rue was just waiting to be humiliated, snubbed by an empty dance card or men making one excuse or another to leave a conversation. But this was just another business transaction- it didn't matter if she dreamt of a whirlwind romance, Rue was only entering this season because there were things only a Viscount could do, and she was sure any man who looked her way would only be doing so for the title.

DARK PAST

Though a tame Viscountess she appears to be, a glimpse at Lady Ruelle Master's personal library is enough to raise an eyebrow or two- romance novels stock the shelves, some well known for their level of... explicitness. 

*

Careful future suitors, this quiet girl may not be as even-tempered as she appears. While most well-bred ladies indulge in light reading or needlepoint to settle their nerves, a source in Darring claims to sell bullets to a servant on the Viscountess's estate somewhat regularly. Rumor has it, Lady Ruelle's chosen activity to destress is target practice- on objects that aren't always fake ducks. 

*

Favoured Cousin of the Viscountess, Mr. Edward Masters, is a skillful businessman who has been known to handle ventures on Lady Master's accounts since her parents have died. In fact, Mr. Langsley claims to have done business with him just a fortnight ago. However, there seems to be another Mr. Edward Masters in France, a robust man with difficulty holding his tongue when attempting to hold his drink, who was going under the pseudonym of Thomas Warner, aspiring author. A ridiculous claim for someone so deep in his drinks, non? Fear not, dear readers, for a source in the Master's family has confirmed that Mr. Edwards reputation of a savvy business man is far from the man he knows as his brother- so who is this imposter? I took a closer look at the one Lady connected to it all, and found a shocking resemblance past familial to the Edward in England. I came to a shocking conclusion that I could not wait to share with you, dear readers- infiltrating these gentlemen's clubs is none other that Lady Ruelle herself.